/awg/ Alternative Wargames General

/awg/ is the new /hwg/

dead thread

ah well I guess you're right. I saw the Saga pdf on the /awg/ pastebin and I just sort of associate vikings and shit with fantasy at this point

To be fair Saga is not super accurate in historical terms.

Seems to be a little dead at the moment

OK, let's start a conversation then. What scale do people here typically play? I personally enjoy 6mm and 1/1200, as it helps make battles feel far larger than something like 15mm or 28mm.

Shameless begging for the Ospreys Rogue Stars pdf continues.
It's because I'm a poor bastard and have to invest my gaming money wisely.

What's the latest on Heavy Gear? I'm looking around on Ebay for the new starter but all I'm seeing is the old metal stuff.

However, /hwg/ really likes it because a) the rules are pretty solid and b) it only needs a small amount of figures. Wouldn't hurt to discuss it here, but we definitely discuss it plenty over there.

28mm, 6mm, boat scales.

Used to be into 15mm, but... I just like big toys, you know? And I'm not doing 15mm AND a larger or smaller scale.

I'm mostly a skirmish gamer and painter so it's 28/32mm for me.

But if it's battlesuits like Battletech then I'll drop to 6mm. I'd like to try gaming in 15mm but it's not something that appeals to local stores

>Used to be into 15mm, but... I just like big toys, you know? And I'm not doing 15mm AND a larger or smaller scale.

Yeah, I definitely get it. The only reason why I have 28mm models is because I like to work on/paint them and have them on display. I never really play 28mm because it's a lot easier to make/transport game boards/terrian for smaller scale games.

>implying you can't put 15mm out as display

I was referring more to the "big toys" part.

I like skirmish games.
28mm to 35mm for me.

This is why generals are bad, conceptually. Only open threads with an actual topic for discussion, or it'll all just be borderline shitposting.

I'm always torn between 15mm and 28mm, since I'm mostly into platoon skirmishing. 15mm has that nice bang for your buck getting a huge battlefield from your regular 4x4 or 6x4 table, but 28mm is just so much better for conversions and individualizing your army.

I'm planning to run a new warband for Mordheim, the Witch Hunters. The thing is, I'd like to make it Bloodborne themed - I've found a few miniatures that could work for it (Inquisitor from Avatars of War and a pair of inquisitors from Confronation) but that's not enough. If you have in mind anything that could work for the pic related, please share your thoughts with me.

I think Malifaux got you covered there, especially the Guild. The Death Marshalls, Riflemen, Exorcists and Brutal Effigys would work well I think.

I very rarely get to play, so I've been looking seriously into solo games. Got a load of Deadzone off of kickstarter, and the updated rulebooks. New rules are better but the AI deck for solo doesn't really work! Any ideas? Is Nexus Psi worth getting?

>solo
log your stuff, at least as a short one-line description, maybe mention highlights. it adds a lot. you don't have to go full CAMPAIGN DIARY and name everyone, but just keeping some sort of record you can look back over means you'll be able to look and see what's happened before, for ideas for future stuff.

also try reading various solo wargaming and wargaming campaign books, they can be good, although a lot focus on bigger battles and campaigns.

for deadzone-style skirmish you might prefer looking at solo rpg nerds for ideas. the (ugh) google plus community "lone wolf" is pretty active and has some neat ideas posted, including skirmishes.

Cheers, I'll try the log ideas and look around for more solo stuff. Thanks for the hints

Cheers for your tips too! I looked at the g+, I'm guessing the urgh was because theres a few too many 'lone wolf' groups so I'm not sure which one is good ;)

it's because google plus is a mess.

plus.google.com/communities/116965157741523529510

the other major solo community I know is the solowargame yahoo group, which is ancient.

lone warrior's a good mag if you want something to read, it's $10 for a PDF sub.

the most recent solo book I know of is the one from precis intermedia - it's good, heavily focused on campaigning and armies. don't think there are any other notable recent publications.

two hour wargames games are a look for you, especially for their campaign rules, since they're skirmish games and sort of light rpgs.

scarlet heroes (and the rest of sine nomine's games) have a ton of useful stuff for running a game that might be adaptable to your needs.

um, what else. mythic rpg is pretty commonly used - the mythic gm emulator is a neat way of adding some randomness that works well.

also people go wild for rory's story cubes, they own.

but you're mostly looking at sf skirmishes, so. hm. maybe pick up pulp alley if you can find the pirated pdf to have a look? it has a solo expansion that's not necessary at all, and does well for skirmishes that add a lot of flavour. there's someone on LAF using it for 40kish skirmish games - lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=95838.0 is one of their threads. They have a really cool style and aren't afraid to stick some 40k dudes down on generic fantasy terrain and have them fight a necromancer.

but assuming you'll actually be using the deadzone rules... which I don't know, I'd suggest putting together some forces and assigning a leader and a person or two each side a (very basic) personality, or a notable trait or something, that you can use to guide their playstyle. scribble down a basic battle plan for the squad before the turn, someone a bit thick might not be good at changing plans mid-game, a greedy git might decide to loot something when the boss would rather they deal with flanking enemy, etc.

basically just play stuff and have fun?

>lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=95838.0
incidentally, this is worth a look for anyone, just look at the warbands fighting in that game:

an inquisitor and their warband, which includes a rogue eldar, a renegade chaos champion?!, a rogue grey knight, and a rogue dark eldar, accompanied by the local sherrif

a crimson fist squad of space marines

a joker-themed gang

bane, leading some space pirates and a squat

vampirella and assorted undead

that's just a fun as hell looking game in the spirit of rogue trader.

Cheers for the link, and you're not wrong about g+ being a mess!

There for the other info, I'm of to sleep so I'll get a better look tomorrow even if this goes off to the archive. Thanks again

Yes that lot looks fun as well, just had a peek before going off

Did you guys run in to a bout of indecisive when you got into war gaming ? I can't help but want to dip my toes into a bit of everything.

That's why I have 3 games, and am about to buy a fourth.

Hey, guys.

I'm looking for a wargame I might be able to get my brother into. I personally haven't played wargames myself, and though I've always been keen to try, the mainstream ones always seem to find a way to disinterest me.

I'm looking for a game that doesn't handle turns the (from my understanding) usual way of
>Team 1
>Move a unit
>Perform an action with that unit
>Move another unit
>etc

Something ideal would have some sort of phased combat where both sides perform a category of actions before moving on to the next batch of actions. Something like a movement phase, attack phase, etc. I understand that may be a bit particular, so I'm willing to look at other systems as well. My main wish is for battles to play out a little more organically or realistically.

I'm not particular about what genre, either. Worse comes to worse, if I'm not a fan of the setting, I can always fiddle with it and use other miniatures.

It would be stupid not to be indecisive, as you have to really commit yourself to the hobby. After all, you will most likely have to spend hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours just to get into the wargaming.

Oh, and because I know this may affect the answers I get, I'm looking for something that can play at a skirmish scale. Bonus if it can be played at a more intense scale as well, as we accumulate miniatures.

Is adeptus titanicus a fit for /awg/ because I am hype as fuck for it.

Antares, infinity, bolt action are the ones I can think of that fit that bill.

Nope, that's /40k/

Anyone hype for some new releases for dystopian legions? Pic related is the new covenant walker.

i like 15mm the most, but i have a deep love for 1:285 as well.

i do 28mm because a lot of other gamers do.

Where is the love for this great game? Fantastic minis, good unique ruleset, breddy ok lore, and unique factions.

Shit, alright. Also quick question what is everyone's opinions on back kickstarters here? Generally I'm opposed but I wanted some opinions.

That blood and plunder thing looks interesting but I think it's closed but I thought I'd ask.

>Where is the love for this great game? Fantastic minis, good unique ruleset, breddy ok lore, and unique factions.

I was pretty interested. The first Kickstarter failed spectacularly though and then it took a year to hear anything new at all about the game.
The beta rules were all over the place too.
That put a big dampener on my enthusiasm.
Not to mention that we were promised hard sci-fi and the faction design kinda looks like something from an 80s cartoon.

The miniatures seem to be okay, but Warlord has tiny pictures with mediocre paintjobs on their storepage to advertise them.
The first time I was able to properly see the models was in an ebay auction, cause the guy selling off his stuff made better pictures than the official store has.

I'm still curious about the game. The rulebook costs nearly as much as a GW book though and I'm not willing to commit that much after seeing the beta rules.

Factions may be different from each other, but I don't think the lore is super original.
I only have a vague idea from the beta ruleset though, so my perception might be off.

And to top it all off Warlord does zero marketing outside of their newsletter.

Oh yeah, I was also interested in that cardgame they made as introduction to the lore of the game. The youtube video that supposedly explains the rules is so bad I was pissed off at Warlord again and decided against it.

I would only back a Kickstarter if it is being run by a company that has already released models.

That's not new, that's been around since 2013. They just never released it, nor have they confirmed they will be releasing it.

Does anyone play the Marvel Universe game here? store I game at is starting to stock it. Minis look pretty cool, not sure who I'd play but the Spidey bad guys are pretty tempting.

Kickstarter are pretty risky. A lot of the bigger ones fail. Even ones with limited scope and solid companies behind them run into huge problems.

You really need to research everything before you commit. Ask you self the following:

Is the company reliable?
Is the project to ambitious?
What are you really getting by supporting?
Are you willing to deal with a year of delays?

Everything listed is important. Too big a project and even a vet company will fold. A lot of times you aren't getting very much extra simply not waiting until retail. And nearly every KS gets delayed so there is that as well.

If a company has a shit reputation steer clear as well. If they are an unknown set a spending limit.

This is something I wished I'd seen before I backed Robotech Tactics! I think I plumbed in on the last day, got caught in the hype and didn't look into Palladium Games and found that the only thing they are reliable for is disappointment, delays and mismanagement! Oh and a mindset of the mid-eighties when they were last relevant!

Be prepared for flash and poor moulding; I've had nothing but negative experiences with Knight Models, to the extent that my local club won't play the game based purely on the miniature quality.
Sad really, as most of it can be rectified with a little skill, and it seems a fun game.

Different guy here, but I feel you. I've been really lukewarm towards GoA, but with their new mini-starter pack at 50USD, I thought I'd give it a try. If I don't care for it, I guess I'll just use the models for rogue stars or starport scum, etc.

The larger models like the Hulk are better cast them the little figures, but still needed a lot of greenstuff due to gapzilla. The details are so fine that you can confuse them for mold lines, faces are basic and flat. So yeah not great models, which is a shame

>want to collect figures
>want to play them
>i don't like anything i find
is this how being too picky is?

It depends, what are you finding and why don't you like it?

What do you like? Skirmish, large scale battles, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, cheap, expensive, what?

all the figure games, warhammer, infinity, warmahordes, malifaux etc. nothing speaks to me.
>why don't you like it?
if i only knew, it just doesn't click.
i like sci fi and i like fantasy yet nothing convinces me

Then there's really nothing anybody can help you with.

Just keep look at minis and games until you find something that clicks.

Or maybe you don't really want to paint and game yourself, you just like looking at the painted models?

>Or maybe you don't really want to paint and game yourself
it heavily depends on rules for me, i want to play game not do math

Try not looking at games, and instead considering what sort of figures you want, what sort of table you want to push them around on, and how you might want to do it? Don't get into rules yet, or specifics.

I mean, do you want gleaming battalions of soldiers marching over hills in glorious lines, something focusing on a handful of friends living their lives one scuffle at a time, grav tanks darting in to raid behind enemy lines, dwarves defending a wall against goblin hordes, elves ambushing a dwarf patrol in a forest, a historical thing but it's fantasy instead, a scene from a book you read that inspired you...?

As far as this goes, you can always play something simpler and more fun whatever the official rules say. You can also put down an infinity team on a table fighting a warjack and use some random rules you bought or downloaded that have nothing to do with corvus belli or privateer press.

But user like two threads ago spartan games confirmed they're coming back to legions in January and updating everything. It's probably going to be the iron clad they release for the covenant.

But yeah you are right it's been around a long time.

Can someone explain to me the warpath factions outside of seemingly space cops and space dorfs.

happy new year.
Question. has anyone here tried TWD All-out-war from Mantic?

> GCPS

Morally-questionable hyper-capitalist human empire run by corporations. They have both regular goons and Enforcers who are mentally conditioned, genetically-enhanced super soldier types.

> Forgefathers

Space Dwarfs with heat weapons and super armour

> Veer-Myn

Space Skaven with chemical weapons and giant drill tanks

> Plague

Kind of like tyranids but with more zombies

> Asterians

Buddhist space elves who use robot proxies to fight

> Marauders

Space orcs that the GCPS trained as shock troops, resulting in inevitable rebellion. Now work as mercs and pirates.

I find it pretty disappointing mantic just goes down the lets pretend its not GW route for all its stuff.

If you read the actual sourcebook (which I think only KS backers have right now) they do have a fair bit more depth and nuance which differentiates them from 40k, but on the surface there are a lot of parallels.

Also bear in mind that mantic's target audience is people who are fed up with GW and want to play a different game, but still use their existing armies.

>mind that mantic's target audience is people who are fed up with GW and want to play a different game, but still use their existing

I haven't read warpaths, I did look at KOW. They have differences, but you look at the army at it is always kind of just not GW. The only real draw to any GW product any more is the lore (which they are doing their best to torpedo). Not having a solid loreof their own that doesn't just feel like a copy make it hard to support Mantics stuff.

And I get it, that is how they are getting popular etc etc. I know it is the right call for them, but that doesn't make it less disappointing for me.

The thing is, especially with Fantasy, GW cast such a wide net and used so many archetypes and tropes that it would be very hard for Kings of War not to be similar.

> Greenskins

GW did it

> Dwarfs

GW did it

> Undead

Yup

> Humans

Both chivalrous AND steampunk

> Elves

GW did it. Three different ways.

The fact remains a large portion, if not the majority of the Kings of War playerbase are in it purely for the rules. Lore is interchangeable, since it's generic fantasy you can use models from almost any range and have your headcanon be basically whatever you want.

Mantic realise this which is why they've not really done much at all to develop the background, because what would be the point?

I know user, I was the one who posted the stuff confirming it. I'm just sayung we don't know if they are releasing that model, or something new.

Fair enough, I apologize user.

You are correct. I am just whining.

Tbh GW stole all of those from one source or another as well.

It clonks my bongles when people say 'stole' like that.
GW obviously drew their inspiration from somewhere else, 40k literally came to be as a set of sci-fi rules for their miniature catalog, some of those produced under license.

Though they managed to develop on of the most interesting and popular IP out of that potpourri.

If Mantic makes a game, similar to another game it's not the same 'creative achievement' as creating that entire world in the first place.

I wish people would differentiate between plagiarism and inspiration more.

This crap refreshed itself and ate my reply, but what bears any kind of originality? Tilea is Spain, The Empire is Holy Roman Empire, Bretonnia is France/England, Nippon is Japan, Cathay is China, Araby is...Araby, Lizardmen are Aztecs but dinosaurs, Beasts of Chaos and Skaven are antropomorphic animals, Warriors of Chaos are vikings mostly from the perspective of Christian monks and so forth. No faction is original in any kind of way.

Most interesting and popular...and they fucked it up as they went along the way, so way to go Geedubs.

The game's not that similar - big blocks of fighters and basically that's about it. Also, game!=fluff.

If you wish people to differentiate between the two, don't praise the ones plagiarising.

I was talking about 40k, not WHFB, even so the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Rick Priestley wrote a great book with Rogue Trader. That is what I am saying.
That the game is the most interesting to most people and therefore popular is self evident by virtue of being the biggest non-historical game on the market.

I get the bitterness, but I think you are missing my point. I'm not praising the company or what has been done with the IP in recent years. I'm saying the inception of a setting that can make literally any popculture, literary or historical reference work was quite impressive.

And if you think that is what plagiarism is then you are mistaken.

>biggest non-historical game on the market.
I thought X-Wing had replaced 40k at this point.

Good point. I know it's extremely successful, not sure if it's bigger than 40k already.
Though it's a bit of a different animal imo. First of all it comes with a franchise like Star Wars attached and does not involve the same amount of miniature related hindrances to get into it, since the models come prepainted and assembled. It also uses kind of a trading card game marketing scheme with the expansions and the equipment cards.

I mean there is another variant of the game for dragons set in D&D and another set in Star Trek, but I've never heard anybody actually playing those games.
Kind of makes you wonder how much of the success of the game is due to the Star Wars label attached to it.

If it had it's own original setting, or one derivative of Star Wars instead of actually being Star Wars the comparison would be more accurate I think. As the argument was about originality of the lore of Mantic vs GW games I don't think there is much of a connection here.

X-wing came out first that. The other two versions are done by Wizkids and just shoe horning the system into those IPs. It certainly doesn't translate anywhere near as well there and essential it is the IP the sells the game in those systems.

With X-Wing it is different, the game initial buzz came out from Fantasy Flight popularity. It tends to attract both standard mini gamers (because it is easy to just throw some money down, play quick games and the rules are fucking great) and new players because it is prepainted uses color ful cards and is easy to learn. in for the reasons you mentions. You just add in to it that it is Star Wars and no wonder it is more popular than 40k. It was an establish and known solid game for a around a year and then fucking Ep 7 hit and the game became even more of a gold mine.

However, the thing to say is I don't think it is taking away the a good chunk of their sales. Most people that to play it seem to still play other wargames. Its low over head and easy rules just make it the perfect side game.

Wow I really failed to write a simple paragraph there. Time to step away from the keyboard for a bit.

Wish they'd do a standard SW wargame at some point in 15mm or something where you can model walkers without looking silly. I have no idea why noone made it so far, the universe lends itself for such things pretty well.

What do you guys think of the runewars game coming out? Look a little interesting.

there will never be a good big battle starwars game to recreate hoth with

You have to feel bad for the people behind GoA, they seem to have massively misjudged what most people want.

Why you say that user?

This is bait, I repeat, this is bait, get to your battlestations.

Also: six fucking captchas but doesn't let me post. What the fuck.

As the dude you're responding to it took me about four to post that. Fucking jap moot.

Also for antares is it just no one wants another 28mm wargame?

The Plague is more like the Necromorphs from Dead Space, really.

Because there is basically zero interest despite how hard Warlord is pushing it.

It seems like a game without a real niche.

Everyone wants another 28mm wargame, it's just that you really need something to pull one over the sheer nostalgia and sunk cost fallacy that 40k evokes.

The game is pretty primitive, and there's a major lack of options.

isn't there market satuation of 28mm skirmish game now?

Skirmish, maybe, but isn't Antares more about 30 to 40 models per side?

I am very hyped,rules sound nice and i absolutely love the miniatures.

I think we agree on everything user I think I'm just gonna wait for more factions to drop.